4 ms·
An anonymous whistleblower is likely to be ignored however. I edited my reply to include this most likely option. Schultz Jr was contacted in LinkedIn by a WSJ
by cft 10y ago
An anonymous whistleblower is likely to be ignored however. I edited my reply to include this most likely option.
Schultz Jr was contacted in LinkedIn by a WSJ reporter, he did not hide his identity because he likely (empirically) realized that his anonymous complaint would be ignored.
- prostoalex 10y agoBased on what data? The government has set up a bunch of venues specifically for anonymous whistleblowers, e.g. https://www.whistleblower.gov/overview/submitatip/ https://www.whistleblower.gov/overview/submitatip/ https://www.irs.gov/uac/whistleblower-informant-award https://www.irs.gov/uac/whistleblower-informant-award https://www.osha.gov/Publications/OSHA3714.pdf https://www.osha.gov/Publications/OSHA3714.pdf so there's at least some process behind the scenes rather than > /dev/null He didn't have to hide his identity from a WSJ reporter because journalistic sources are protected by similar set of laws. To the readers of WSJ he was just a "confidential source".
- cft 10y agoIn the article it says "In March 2014, he anonymously emailed his complaint to New York officials.." Then the article says: "In March 2015, Tyler Shultz was contacted by a Journal reporter through the professional network LinkedIn." Something doesn't match up here. I can only assume that his anonymous complaint did not reach the desired effect in a year, and he went via other channels, using his own renouned last name.
- prostoalex 10y agoYeah, I wish they provided more details on this. It would also seem rational for the investigative reporter to ping 20-30 LinkedIn contacts who listed Theranos as their employer in hopes that 2-3 would reply, so maybe he wasn't the only one the reporter contacted.
- rbobby 10y agoThe reporter likely contacted a bunch of Theranos employees via LinkedIn (and probably sorted the list based on former/current). Was Tyler the only confidential source to talk to the WSJ? Probably not. because of that whole two sources rule good journalists follow.
- cft 10y agoSo your theory is that after Tyler's initial complaint, the regulators waited for a year, and then leaked the anonymous complaint to WSJ, which randomly contacted a bunch of employees, including the original anonymous tipper?
- vkou 10y agoAlternatively, another employee tipped off the WSJ (Instead of, or in addition to a regulator,) and the WSJ started contacting current, and former employees, to see if their story had any legs.
- prostoalex 10y agoWSJ has its own tipsters, the reporter in question was interviewed by Jason Calacanis a while back https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zSgwJA-GOlg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zSgwJA-GOlg